Biblioteca di Scienze Moderne, No 1 Africa: Antropologia della Stirpe Camitica

Abstract

PROF. SERGI is an anthropologist whose views differ widely from those of other writers on the science, who, he complains, have down to the present left the subject in a state of chaos. In the present work he seeks to apply an improved method to the study of a particular section of mankind, viz. the Hamites of Africa. In subdividing the human race, Prof. Sergi depends on purely physical characters, discarding linguistic facts as untrustworthy as indications of affinity. He draws a broad distinction between what he terms the internal and external physical characters, the former relating to the bony skeleton—particularly the skull—while the latter include such secondary characters as the colour of the skin, form of the hair, &c. He holds that the former are persistent, and tha even in the case of a mixture of races they are not modified, but rather that the type of one or other of the parent stocks is maintained. The external characters are subject to modification from the influence of environmen and other causes, so that the only trustworthy criterion of race is supplied by the internal.

Biblioteca di Scienze Moderne, No. 1. Africa: Antropologia della Stirpe Camitica.

By Giuseppe Sergi. Pp. 426. (Turin: Bocca, 1897.)